


Marooned

by Byrcca



Series: Fixed It For Ya! (You Know What You Did/Didn’t Do) [1]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Book 14: Marooned, Christie Golden, F/M, Proto P/T
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 00:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14461587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Byrcca/pseuds/Byrcca
Summary: A handful of missing scenes from the novel Marooned by Christie Golden. I felt there were missed opportunities for a little P/T interaction, so here they are. Contains SPOILERS for the 20 year old novel.





	Marooned

**Author's Note:**

> Book 14, so we’re edging ever closer to the novelization of Day of Honor. (How I wish there had been a novelization of Revulsion. Pfffthth.) According to a list I saw somewhere, Marooned is placed between Real Life (the way he looked at her in the mess, my word!) and Distant Origin which, to me, means Tom is already in love with B’Elanna whether he admits that to himself or not. And, born in 2346, he’s around 27 years old. He’s not a kid anymore.
> 
> The lovely Kes is kidnapped by a Space Pirate, and KJ is determined to get her back. They find her but plot plot plot, end up crashing a shuttle on the barren and dangerous planet where she’s being held. A former penal colony, the inhabitants are the descendants of the criminals once sent there. And they look like they would eat our away team but they’re gentle and technologically advanced. Because it was written by the (former) goddess of P/T goodness, there are a few P/T bits in here. But not enough. Never enough. And one big whopping missed opportunity for a P/T bit. The natives take them to their camp, and KJ sends Tom and B’Elanna, along with some of the Sshoush-shin, back to try to repair the shuttle. They can’t communicate with the natives because their combadges don’t work (plot device!)so I suspect Tom and B’Elanna would talk to each other.

***

“Well,” Tom said after a few minutes trudging over the barren landscape of Mishkara, “I guess if we’re stuck here for the rest of our lives, at least the neighbours are friendly. Maybe they’ll loan us a cup of warp plasma if we run out.”

B’Elanna smiled, not entirely getting the reference. After three years of friendship with Tom and Harry she certainly knew more about old Earth customs and twentieth-century culture than she used to, but some of Tom’s colloquialisms still escaped her.

He glanced at her then looked away. Looked back. “Still, if you’ve ever thought about settling down and having a couple of kids, let me know. I’ll pick us out a nice comfy cave. You can add some feminine touches. It’ll be cozy.”

She snorted. She didn’t think of herself as having the feminine touch. She remembered from their walk to Hrrrl’s settlement that afternoon that the terrain while reasonably flat, thankfully, was spotted with brush and loose stone. She hadn’t seen anything that looked like a mountain range, and there didn’t appear to be anything useful for building a shelter. 

“What?” Tom asked, pulling her out of her musings and back into his foolishness. “You’ve never thought of having kids?”

She had, in fact, a few years ago, but the children had had dark hair and brown eyes, the facial tattoo being optional. But those adolescent fantasies had faded during her tumultuous time in the Maquis, and had died for good once they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Nothing like seventy-five years of your _one true love_ viewing you as his little sister to _crush_ any notions of romance. She glanced at Tom. She’d never thought of having babies with him though she had, on too many occasions, thought of sharing the act of _baby-making_ with him. Him and his pretty blue eyes. She looked away. 

“What makes you think I’d choose you as my partner?” she asked. She knew she shouldn’t take the bait but she couldn’t resist. He was too damned engaging. And he wasn’t serious anyway. The idea of Tom Paris settled down and playing daddy was ludicrous. 

“You mean aside from my obvious charm and good looks? You may not have noticed but your choices are a little limited. Tuvok is married, Bokk is, well,” he paused, “and Neelix is still hung up on Kes. Plus, he’s Neelix.”

“She was crazy to break up with him,” B’Elanna stated, shaking her head. 

“Oh, come on!” Tom exclaimed. “They had to have been the most mismatched couple I’ve ever seen. Kes is lovely and Neelix is…” he waved a hand in the air, at a loss for words. 

“Look, he may not be Herbert Redford, but he has a lot of things going for him. And his spots are kind of cute.” She flashed a grin; needling Tom was an artform she’d been studying for some months. 

Tom wrinkled his nose. “I think you mean Robert Redford.”

“I do?” she asked.

“Trust me.”

“Whatever,” she answered. “He’s kind, he’s thoughtful, he cooks.” At Tom’s pained expression, she amended, “Okay, he _likes_ to cook.”

Tom nodded. “Can’t wait to taste his grub surprise.”

B’Elanna faltered but only for a moment. “He never forgets a birthday or an anniversary.”

“I can see I have some tough competition here,” Tom said. He was smiling at her with a smug expression on his too handsome face. 

She stared at him, her expression serious. “You could take notes.”

“Shall I woo you with leola root?” he asked with a grin. 

B’Elanna wrinkled her nose. She stumbled on some loose stones, and Tom slipped an arm around her waist and held her upright. 

“Your Klingon genes don’t help you see in the dark?” he quipped.

“No,” she said, shrugging him off, resisting the urge to plant her elbow in his gut. “But they do allow me to walk without help.”

He put a little space between them. “Fine. Fall on you nose next time,” he said. 

B’Elanna walked on for a bit, being more careful where she placed her feet. It wouldn’t do to get injured, especially since the medical tools weren’t working, and she wasn’t a hundred percent sure she would be able to fix them. A combadge or tricorder were one thing, a delicate medical instrument was another. The truth was, it was tempting to have Tom’s arm around her in the dark. She was starting to get chilly despite the exercise, and he smelled good. He felt good. Time to end that train of thought! “So,” she said, “you think Kes is _lovely_ do you?”

“Sure. In a porcelain doll sort of way. Especially with her long hair. My sister, Moira, had a whole collection of antique dolls that she kept on a shelf in her bedroom. She reminds me of them.”

B’Elanna stared at him, the idea as foreign to her as Sunday family dinner. “Did she play with them all?” she asked.

Tom shook his head. “Oh no, they were too delicate. No one was allowed to touch them.”

B’Elanna cocked her head. “Do you even hear yourself?” she asked. 

Tom turned his head to look at her, genuine confusion on his face. “What?”

“I change my mind,” B’Elanna announced. “That’s exactly how Neelix treated her, like she was some fine object to put on a shelf and admire. No wonder she broke it off. And that’s how Aren Yasher thinks of her.” She shook her head. “God, it must be infuriating for her! She’s a flesh and blood woman with desires and dreams and curiosity and intelligence, and all anyone can see is—”

With the planet’s lower oxygen, she was breathing hard after her diatribe and Tom was looking at her with an uneasy expression. B’Elanna gulped a breath, biting back her frustration. “Nevermind. Forget it.” Tom opened his mouth then shut it again. 

He tried again, “You know that everyone on _Voyager_ appreciates how intelligent you are, right? I mean, sometimes you’re downright scary.” 

She stared at him, but was saved from coming up with a response by one of their escort, Rraagh. He made a sound, more whispered roar with a click on the end than a growl, and motioned with the torch. They had reached the shuttle. It was so dark she could have tripped over it without knowing it was there. Then the wind shifted and she caught a scent of warp plasma. At least if it was spewing plasma that meant that it hadn’t all leaked out yet. Which was good news. She ignored Tom and got down to work. 

****

B’Elanna squinted in the dim light, bringing the small machine closer to her face. A wrist-light was next, she decided, even if it might blind their hosts. Tom occasionally joked about _Voyager_ being held together by spit and bailing wire. What she wouldn’t give for some of that right now, she thought, even if she wasn’t exactly clear on what it was. 

“Torrres.”

She looked up and nodded at the large Sshoush-shin male, recognizing him as one of the technicians who had led her and Tom back to the shuttle last night. “Hello,” she said. She and Tom had managed to repair three more combadges this morning, and she was currently working on a tricorder. She wondered if Rraagh was planning to help her with repairs, and tried to imagine the small combadge in his huge paws. 

“Parrris. He is your mate? Do you _grow young_?” 

She was taken aback by the blunt question, and tempted to snap back a response, but maybe the Sshoush-shin weren’t diplomatic by nature. It took her a moment to puzzle out his question; he thought she and Tom were married, and she was pregnant.

“No. Of course not! Why would you think that?”

“He watches you. He guards you.”

B’Elanna shrugged off his observation, choosing not to dwell on that too much. “We’re friends,” she said. “We work together.”

“I am friends with my mate,” Rraagh replied. “We work together to raise our young.”

His comment hit a little too close to the mark, and if B’Elanna didn’t know better she would swear he’d been eavesdropping on her conversation with Tom during the walk to the shuttle last night. “Well, you were wrong. We’re not...like that.” 

“Here you go, Lieutenant, one fully functioning hyperspanner, with my compliments.” Tom appeared at her elbow with a smile, proffering the tool. He noticed her rigid posture and glanced at the furry behemoth looming over her. Tom straightened, bracing his shoulders and back, and took a step in front of her. “Something I can help you with?” he asked. 

B’Elanna recognized the false-friendliness in his tone and was about to snarl a loud denial when Rraagh threw back his head in a very human gesture and chuffed and snorted what could only be a belly laugh. He was bobbing his head as he lumbered away, reminding her of a large, furry dog shaking water out of its ruff, and she snatched the ’spanner out of Tom’s hand with a scowl. 

He stared at her. “You’re welcome,” he said. 

“Thank you,” she said testily. 

He stared at her a moment longer then shook his head and bent to pick up another tricorder from the pile of objects at her side. 

“I don’t need you to play bodyguard,” she said. 

He raised an eyebrow. “Okaayyy…?” he drawled. 

“It’s just...I’m fully capable of looking after myself.”

“Of course you are,” he agreed. That conciliatory tone was back. 

“I bet I’m stronger than you anyway.”

He’d been edging away but that halted him. “Oh, really?”

She eyed him up and down. They’d been sharing some holodeck workout programs, and he’d obviously been bulking up in the gym. He wasn’t as thin as he’d been even a year ago: his arms and shoulders were more muscled, and there was no way overeating could account for the change in his physique. 

“Yes,” she said, a little less sure of her proclamation than she had been ten seconds ago. 

“Fine,” Tom said. “When we get back to _Voyager_ you, me, and the holodeck. I’ll wrestle you. Winner buys a romantic dinner for two.” 

She was just about to take him up on it when she noticed that gleam in his eyes. The one that put a whole new meaning on the word _wrestle_. She rolled her eyes. “You, me, in the gym with Baxter as the ref. And no funny business, Paris,” she warned.

Tom’s eyes warmed and _that_ smile was back. “You think I’d try some funny business, Torres?” His voice was like silk. “Are you afraid to be alone with me?”

“I think I won’t give you the chance. Are you afraid of being publicly humiliated?” She smiled sweetly back at him.

Tom straightened abruptly. “You’re on. Better save those rations, B’Elanna. I can have...quite an appetite.” 

B’Elanna’s stomach chose that moment to growl with hunger, and she felt a blush flood her cheeks. Damnit. She was suddenly thankful for the dim lighting. At least it gave her an excuse to ignore his double entendre. As he turned to go she stopped him. “You could work here, you know, with me.” He raised an eyebrow, and she sighed. “We could share the ’spanner.” 

Tom nodded and sat. 

“Just don’t talk about food!” she ordered. 

Tom laughed and opened the back of the tricorder.

 

****

When the Doctor finally released her from sickbay, Tom had fallen asleep. _Or maybe he’d slipped into a coma_ , she thought. He’d looked like hell. He didn’t look much better today. His complexion was waxy, and his eyes were sunken with dark purple smudges beneath them, his body stilled in a way that seemed unnatural for him. They’d spoken a little yesterday about his new holodeck programme, but the few minutes of conversation had worn him out. A night’s sleep didn’t appear to have helped. 

The arch was down, and she could see that his blankets were tented over his thigh where Captain Janeway had had to cut away his necrotic flesh. She tensed as she remembered his scream of pain, and sucked in a breath.

B’Elanna stood beside his biobed, wanting to reach out and touch him just to make sure that he was alive. Instead, she watched the slow, even rise and fall of his chest, and tried to regulate her own breathing. When he’d fought her on the planet she’d felt an overwhelming wash of anger toward him—didn’t he know she was trying to help him?! But he hadn’t, of course; he’d been delirious from the poison in his bloodstream, and panicked from whatever vision had frightened him, and for a moment his adrenaline-fuelled strength had overwhelmed hers and she’d dropped him. She shuddered. She shouldn’t dwell on the fact that she might as well have delivered him into Aren Yashar’s cruel hands, the sick bastard. At least he had helped heal Tom, however minimally, instead of killing him. 

“What are you doing back here? Are you in pain?” Kes’ soft concern jerked B’Elanna from her thoughts. 

“Kes,” she acknowledged. “No, I’m fine. I was going a little stir crazy in my quarters, and wondered how Tom was doing.”

“He’s resting. Like you should be.” Kes chided. She softened her words with a smile. 

“Really, if I have to spend another minute cooped up in my quarters with nothing to do…” B’Elanna sighed. “How are _you_?” 

“I’m fine,” Kes smiled, and B’Elanna was tempted to believe her. But how could she be after what she’d been through? 

“Are you sure?” B’Elanna caught her by the elbow and tugged her away from Tom’s bedside. “Kes, you were kidnapped. How can you feel fine after that? Aren’t you furious about what he did to you?”

“I spent a lot of time with him, I think I began to understand him.”

“Understand? Kes, he took you because he wanted you. He thought of you as some object he could own! Did you understand that he didn’t think of you as a person?” For B’Elanna, who had been gawked at for most of her life, the idea that Kes had been treated as a _thing_ was infuriating. She couldn’t believe that Kes could possibly be okay with that. 

“I’m really alright, B’Elanna. I spoke with Aren Yashar, I understand why he did what he did.”

“But aren’t you angry?” she insisted.

“I was. But I don’t see the point in wasting energy on continuing to be angry about something that’s in the past.”

B’Elanna was about to respond but shut her mouth. Kes had decided not to dwell on her experience, she had achieved a peace, so why was she, B’Elanna, determined to push Kes into disquiet? She was saved from thinking about that too deeply by Tom’s sleepy complaint.

“You two wanna keep it down? Some of us are trying to fight off a life-threatening infection here.”

They both turned and took a step toward him, bumping into each other. Kes laughed, and allowed B’Elanna to precede her to Tom’s side while she detoured to pick up a tricorder and a hypospray. He sounded weak, but the humour in his voice warmed her. She stopped fighting the urge to touch his hand, but resisted her desire to run her fingers through his hair. 

“Why does Kes think you’re in pain?” he asked. “You okay?”

“I’m fine, Tom,” she denied.

“Did you get hurt?”

There was no way she was going to tell him that in his panic and fear he’d punched her, causing her to fall into the hole in the ground they’d dug out with their phasers. No way she would allow him to find out about the burns on her back and arms from coming into contact with the molten hot wall of the shaft. “Just some bumps and bruises,” she said.

“‘kay…” His eyes were closed again and he smiled, but he opened them when Kes arrived at his side and started scanning him. 

“Will I live, Doc?” he joked.

“Only if you rest,” Kes replied. Satisfied with the readings on the instrument, she clapped it closed and stepped away. “Only a few minutes,” she warned as she pressed a hypo to his neck. “He’s sedated and should be sleeping.”

“Of course,” B’Elanna replied with a nod. When she glanced back down at Tom she found that he was studying her with a dreamy expression in his eyes. “What?” she asked.

“The captain said you carried me.”

She sucked in a breath. “Yeah.” She looked at him, wondering what he thought of that, then it struck her and she grinned. “I guess that means I’m stronger than you, after all.”

“Uh-uh,” he denied. “...chance carry you all day.”

B’Elanna smiled and squeezed his hand. “Okay. As soon as you’re back on your feet mine won’t touch the floor.” He was drifting off so she withdrew her hand and stepped back. She had just turned away when he jerked awake again.

“Blana!”

She turned back with a smile. “What?”

“Kidnapping you for ransom seems like a bad idea now,” he said. He must have had an adrenaline rush because he was more articulate than he’d been a minute ago. Too bad he wasn’t making any sense. At her puzzled expression he elaborated. “The programme. I’ll rewrite it so you have your own ship. We can battle for the treasure.”

She nodded. “That sounds like more fun. Will I have a sword?”

“...give you mine…s’a date.” 

His expression was dreamy again and his eyes were closing. She wasn’t sure if she should read innuendo into that last comment or not, but he was asleep now, his face relaxed, so she couldn’t quiz him on it. Again, she fought the urge to touch him and backed away. 

“Maybe we can share the treasure,” she said, then she turned and left sickbay already thinking about the dress and boots she would replicate for their date.


End file.
